Tasmania Day 2

Binalong Bay Tasmania

Day 2 started off in St. Helens.  We headed to Binalong Bay which I think along with other bays up that little part of the coast was called the Bay of Fires. The orange color is produced by lichen.  The waters were very clear and it was fun to walk around on the rocks. 

panorama of the rocks

Not all of these beaches were rocky..  but every so often you would find the rocks.  They were very interesting looking.

I love this one with the rocks and the trees in the back.

 In the trees were all kind of birds.  Mostly parrots.  You could definitely hear them but didn't always see them.  It sounded like we were in a forest of trees with all the birds we could hear.

Binalong beach

We did not get a chance to play on this beach as it was 9am when we were here and we were traveling down the whole east coast of Tasmania this day.  It was a very pretty beach though.. the sand was amazing.  Very white and powdery. 

Binalong beach

Friendly Beaches

 Further down the coast we came across Friendly Beaches.  We were the only ones on this beach.  Again the sand was amazing.   Oops this pictures is out of order..  it's suppose to be down by the family pictures with all of us.

St Helens, Tasmania

Alot of the little bay or coves that we came across looked like this.  Very calm waters with a couple of boats anchored in the middle

beware!!!!

East Coast Tasmania

 As we drove down the East Coast of Tasmania..  it looked very much like this. Grassy hills usually with heaps(very commonly used word here) of sheep all over.  It was a very pretty drive.  You would come up on a town every so often usually with a sandy beach near by.  The coast of the left and mountains on the right.

East Coast Tasmania

East Coast Tasmania

Friendly Beaches

 Taking a pit stop at Friendly beaches...  this out house was hilarious.  You can see the beach in the back ground.  There were also lizards running around.. geckos I think. 

 Erickson Family at Friendly Beaches Tasmania.  The weather was perfect this day.  Every stop we made and chatted with the locals.. they all said.. what a perfect day to be making the east coast drive.

Friendly Beaches

 Not very many foots prints on this sand.  Also at most of these stops were camp grounds too.  Alot of people will rent camper vans and travel Tasmania that way.  There were lots of caravan parks along the way as well.  We also stayed as these as they had cheap cabins to rent on site.

 The girls collecting their sea shells.  There were tons on this beach and very cool looking ones too.  They thought Grandma Erickson would love these shells.  Lets see if we can make it home with them all still intact. 

Friendly Beaches

 We then headed further down the coasts to hike to Wine Glass Bay.  We met this little wallaby in the parking lot.  She had a joey too.. very cute.  We fed her carrots.  They say not to feed the animals.. but we thought a carrot or two would be okay.

Her little Joey.

Coles bay in the back ground.

 And we started our hike to Wine Glass Bay which is rated in the top Australian beaches.  I knew it was going to be a hike.. but didn't think it was going to be like it was.. very grueling.  I am not even sure how long it was maybe 4 miles.  But it was straight up and then straight down.  The same going back to our car.  We were only going to hike up to the look out but when we got there we talked to some people that had just come up from the bay and said it was awesome and that there were wallabies walking around the beach (as they were wiping the sweat from their faces)  We thought we might as well do it.  When do you get to see a wallaby jumping around on the beach a very pretty beach at that. 

they were still happy because we were only 1/4 way into the hike.

much of it was like this

 We were climbing rocks and walking in between large boulders.  Emma pretending the rock is about to fall on her.
 And this is the look out to Wine Glass bay.  Mind you we hiked up to it and now we were about to hike down the other side of the mountain down to it.  This is the only way to get there unless you take a boat.

The family with Wine Glass Bay in the background

Can you see the wallaby?

 We  made it to the bottom and the wallabies were there to greet us.  We saw a handful of them on the beach.  We wish we could have walked all the way down the beach but we were running out of time.  We weren't sure how long it was going to take us to get back up the mountain and didn't want to attempt any of that in the dark.

 The water was still very cold but the girls had fun playing and running away from the waves coming in. 

 We only had about 30 min on the beach before we headed back up.  I think the whole thing took us about 3 hours total.  Here are the girls at the top of the mountain taking a rest before making the last trek back down the other side.  I have to say I was so proud of these girls.  Very little complaining.. which is unusual for them as they complain about everything.  We did have to make one potty stop for Dottie but she had to go so bad that she didn't care she was in the forest.. she even scared off a wallaby. 

another panoramic shot of our drive later that day.

 Lots of rolling hills near the ocean.  Here we are in the car..  not sure if you can see it or not but the steering wheel is opposite than most are used too.  We ended the day staying in a caravan park in Triabunna Tasmaina.  It was a hole in the wall place and they did not provided portacrib so Cooper slept in his stroller.  It laid down flat and I buckled him in.  He actually slept great that night. We all slept great, I think because we were so tired and worn out.

Happy Birthday

Happy Birthday Cooper man...   can't believe you are already one.  You are turning into such a handful but we love you.  You are crawling everywhere and standing on your own but haven't taken any steps yet.  You love laughing at your sisters and chasing them around.  The Dr. said you weigh 10 kilos.  It's about 22 pounds.  You are such a good boy and love to be around momma.  Your favorite game is peekaboo.  Your sisters love you (sometimes too much) and love to take care of you.  We love you Cooper!

Tasmania Day 1

Our flight ride from Melbourne to Launceston Tasmania

I think this is a sick wombat.. didn't look to healthy.

We had the best trip to Tasmania this last week.  Jordan and I kept saying.. "I never in my life thought I would ever visit Tasmania"  Glad we got the opportunity. On our first day we flew from Melbourne to Launceston Tasmania.  The flight was a very full flight.  And Cooper did horrible.  He doesn't like to be held of course and just wanted to get down and crawl.  He does okay when he is in the stroller moving but not in my lap.  He cried pretty much the whole way which luckily was only about an hour flight.  I am sure everyone around us loved his screams.  We got to the airport and got our luggage and our rental car, which conveniently was a brand new Subaru outback.  And we set out to tour Tasmania.  Our first stop was up in the NE part of Tasmania.  A little trail called Kangaroo road.  Jordan had read about this little trail online and said it was the place to see the wild life in their natural setting.  It was about a 2 hour drive I would say.  And it consisted of dirt roads.  Made me a little nervous but we got there and boy did we see wild life.

We saw lots of these signs along the road. 

My pictures are not in order... sorry.  I recently updated my blogger and now everything is new to me. On the way out to Kangaroo road in Mount William national park we came across this "blue lake"  Such an interesting color.  Very pretty.. but beware it was very well posted that we should not go near the water and it was very hazardous.  The very pretty blue color is caused when the white clay, exposed by tin mining operations reflects the clear blue of the sky.

The area has an extensive history of tin mining operations. The water is unsafe for swimming or drinking as it has very high levels of aluminum.

Also along the way we saw lots of these signs which we found out later was a very good warning.  At first we thought they were kind of funny and a little dramatic. But sure enough we were dodging animals left and right.  Freaked me out a little bit.

Some of the first wallabies we saw. 

We saw probably hundreds of these little wallabies and some kangaroos this first night.  It was amazing.  Also there were about 20-30 wombats just running around.  We were out in the middle of nowhere it seemed like and we were in their world.  We were off the beaten path and we were there at the perfect time.. dusk that is when they are all out eating.  At first we saw a couple and were just amazed then the farther we got they were all over the place.  And a lot of them had babies in their pouches.

We pulled into this meadow and this was where we saw the mother load... tons of kangaroos and wallabies everywhere.  It was unbelievable. 

Can you see the little babies foot hanging out of the pouch?

We had a little fun with this one.  It crossed the road right in front of us and I thought... huh..  that is one big wombat.  Jordan stopped and got out to take pictures and a little video when he realized that it had a baby in it's pouch.  These things walk so funny.. they kind of waddle and this one even more so because it had a full pouch.  I will try and post the video at the end of the post.

more wallabies

These were the forest kangaroos..  they were pretty big.  I wish we could have gotten a little closer to them.  But it was starting to get dark and we still had another hour to drive to check into our motel room.  And remember we were kind of in the middle of nowhere.  So we started to book it out of there and by this time I couldn't believe how many animals were out and about.  We decided to take a dirt road down to the town of St. Helen's where we were staying instead of heading back out to the main road and going around.  I have to say that was probably the most intense drive I have ever been on.  Animals everywhere...  I know why most cars have grids on the front.. for road kill.  Jordan kept his eyes on one side of the road and I kept my eyes on the other side and away we went...  wallabies just jumping out of nowhere.  We came so close to hitting one I screamed.  Jordan was thrilled about his whole ride. There were also many little critter... not sure what we saw.  Maybe the devils.. they kind of looked like them.  We were told they may have been bandicoots.  It was dark and we couldn't see much of them except their eyes reflecting back at us.  I think we only passed one other car that whole way back too.  So crazy but it was so worth it to go out there and see all those animals in the wild.

Around Town

We went to the visitors center in downtown Melbourne about 2 weeks after we got here. When we were there we picked up different brochures for the surrounding areas as well as a series of little pamphlets with walking tours of Melbourne.

So every Sunday after church if it's nice out, we try to do one of these walks. So far we've done 3. The first one we did was of the arcades. We told the girls we were going to go on an arcade walk down town. About half way through Emma asked when we were going to go to the arcade and play some games. It looks like my arcade at home has paid off.

The arcade were really interesting. Not what Megan and I expected. We were going down little alley-ways with cafes and shops.

Gog and Magog statues.

Royal Arcade with some kind of angel statue in the background.

We didn't realize how many of these arcades were around. They had lots of different shops in them ranging from vintage to high end chocolate stores. The ones that were outdoor usually had a few restaurants with outdoor seating.




The map took us through one alley way that looked pretty sketchy. There was nothing down there, but when we looked at the buildings we saw a few plaques or signs. These were really old buildings and you could tell that the street level use to be a few feet lower. You can see how there are some "short" entrances towards the back. These are the old entrances.

Another old building.

Last month we also took a trip to the Old Melbourne Gaol (that's how they use to spell jail). It's a really old jail that held and eventually hung Ned Kelly. He's the Australian equivalent to Jesse James. We forgot our camera but luckily our American friends the Hawkes came with us and took some pics of us.

In front of the one of the walls of the gaol.

Each of the cells that you could go into had information on one of the prisoners that were kept at the jail. They were very small and kind of stinky inside.



They had a 2 person show on the life of Ned Kelly. It was pretty informative, but a little long (45 minutes). They used a replica of the armor that Ned Kelly built for his stand off with the police and the girls and I tried on the helmet. Notice the gallows in the background? That's where they actually hung Ned Kelly.